


Homecoming

by sigo



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren Fluff, Coming In Pants, Domestic Fluff, Drowning, Dry Humping, Fake/Pretend Relationship, First Kiss, First Time, Fluff, Halloween, Happy Ending, Horror, Huxloween, Huxloween 2020, Idiots in Love, M/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, Near Death Experiences, Professor Armitage Hux, Professor Kylo Ren, benign hauntings, i would call the horror mild, lake shenanigans, they drunk, this turned out cuter than intended
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:01:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27150808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sigo/pseuds/sigo
Summary: “We’re off the next two weeks, you know.”“Yes, I know.” There was emergency construction scheduled to fix cracking asphalt too near a pipe in the center of campus. The buses couldn’t run, and that phenomenon was the only thing that ever cancelled classes. Halloween was dead center in the unplanned time off school, and every bar within a fifteen mile radius would be untenable as the students celebrated. Hux was planning on staying home, catching up on grading. He was rather looking forward to an opportunity to reread his favorite novels. They were already stacked by the couch in preparation.“My family always throws a Halloween party and they got word that I could come this year,” Kylo said, shuffling his feet. He looked almost bashful.“Ren, it’s midnight,” Hux sighed at his infuriating coworker. “Get to it.”“I may have informed my entire family previously that we were dating.”
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren
Comments: 32
Kudos: 256
Collections: Huxloween 2020





	Homecoming

**Author's Note:**

> Huxloween day 23: Halloween traditions. With a side of the supernatural. TW for dubcon is due to communication issues and sexual activities while they are both drunk.

Hux was roused from sleep by frantic knocking on his door. If the storm were any louder he might not have heard the disturbance at all. Muttering to himself and pulling on a sweater over his t-shirt, Hux staggered to the door, still half-asleep. The branch of the tree outside scrawled its bony fingers across the windowpane, the windswept yard flashing bright for a second as lightning darted across the sky. Hux briefly lamented not adopting a large dog for protection (though he wouldn’t trade Millicent for the world). He seldom received visitors aside from Phasma, and never in the wee hours of the night. He blinked blearily at the clock in the hall -- only barely midnight. It felt later. Well, earlier. Another bout of knocking made him jump, and he flung open the door to a torrent of rain and a very familiar form.

“Hux. Thank God, you’re up,” Kylo Ren blustered in and Hux shut the door and latched it, shivering from even the brief chilly gust that came in with his coworker. Kylo was drenched and dripping. He had the good sense to wear a raincoat but it hadn’t helped much with the howling storm beating down on him.

“Did you walk here from…” Hux knew where Kylo lived -- just down the street. Many of the First Order Academy’s professors lived on the shady maze of lanes just at the top of the hilly campus, and Hux had been at Kylo’s house before for a party. It didn’t seem a long enough walk for him to look so undone. “Your office?” Hux finished. The French department’s building, an old and ugly brutalist structure, was all the way across campus.

Kylo nodded, pulling his raincoat off and hanging it on Hux’s coat stand to drip there instead. “Sorry about this,” he said, not sounding very sorry at all. His dark eyes raked over Hux, taking in his pajama bottoms and sweater and white bare feet, and then back up all the way to his disheveled hair. Hux felt practically naked without a tailored jacket on, and fought not to cross his arms over himself. His father’s ghost woke up, bleating at him about his extraordinary thinness. He was nearly Kylo Ren’s height, but half the man’s width. Kylo was dressed as usual, dark jeans and a flannel shirt. He looked more like an engineering professor -- the sort that dressed like they were going onsite for an inspection and expected to be handed a hard hat even though their day would actually consist of clicking through slides and giving their students god complexes -- than someone in language and literature. His hair was coming loose from the sloppy bun he kept it in, hanging down in black strings from the rain, and his scraggly beard was getting rather ridiculous. He smelled palpably like sweat after the long day and the hike up here. Hux wished desperately that he didn’t like it, that he didn’t want to lean in and press his face to the breast of Kylo’s shirt to inhale.

“What is this about? 301--” They both taught sections of FREN 301 this semester: written and oral communication. Hux had been rather chagrined to have two students transfer over to Kylo’s class after the syllabus discussion. Kylo ran a looser ship than Hux did. His students called him by his first name, and he usually taught leaning against a wall and flipping through his slides almost casually, not requiring raised hands to interrupt. ‘Professeur Hux’, no accepted substitutions, knew that his own pupils had taken to calling him The General in hushed tones. Hux also suspected that American students, the majority of the population on their private Seattle campus, favored Kylo’s accent for their language lessons. Altogether, Kylo’s existence was a sore point. He was 5 years Hux’s junior in both age and teaching experience, and already the department favorite. His athletic build didn’t hurt -- Hux had audited his 305 class last year and nearly snapped his pencil in his hand watching the students moon over Kylo Ren and the stupid cowl he wore over his broad shoulders that day.

“No, no that’s not it at all,” Kylo waved a hand dismissively. “We’re off the next two weeks, you know.”

“Yes, I know.” There was emergency construction scheduled to fix cracking asphalt too near a pipe in the center of campus. The buses couldn’t run, and that phenomenon was the only thing that ever cancelled classes. Halloween was dead center in the unplanned time off school, and every bar within a fifteen mile radius would be untenable as the students celebrated. Hux was planning on staying home, catching up on grading. He was rather looking forward to an opportunity to reread his favorite novels. They were already stacked by the couch in preparation.

“My family always throws a huge Halloween party and they got word that I could come this year,” Kylo said, shuffling his feet. He looked almost bashful.

“Ren, it’s midnight,” Hux sighed. “Get to it.”

“I  _ may _ have informed my entire family previously that we were dating.”

Hux’s mind short-circuited. He stuttered, broke off, shook his head, and hissed, “ _ What? _ ”

“I know, I know, you don’t even like me,” Kylo grinned. “But I can sweeten the deal. I’ll take one of your 100 level courses next semester. It’ll free you up to teach that one you wanted to...something-something Middle Ages?”

“No one likes teaching 101,” Hux said incredulously. It was nearly torture -- the students were bored out of their minds, only there to meet the paltry language requirements of STEM degrees.

“I do,” said Kylo obstinately. “I like it almost as much as I like having a boyfriend to shut my folks up.”

“Your family squabbles are none of my business,” Hux told him.  _ And it should stay that way _ . But...he had coveted starting a senior-level  _ Middle Ages in the Modern Imagination _ course that would examine the numerous effects of medieval French literature on modern film and fiction. He’d drawn up lesson plans and taken them to the department, made a damn good speech on behalf of the idea, and been told that his own workload was just too heavy with 100s to devote time to another course. If Kylo took 101 off his hands…. “Just what are you asking of me?” Hux asked, and Kylo’s smile widened in victory.

“It’s no big deal. Come out to the lake house and drink my parents’ booze for a few days and tell anyone who asks how happy and well-adjusted we are.”

“This is absurd.”

“Yep.”

Hux sighed heavily, sitting down in the nearest chair. He put his face in his hands. “Can’t you just tell them we broke up? I broke up with you and found someone infinitely more attractive,” Hux raised his head enough to glare at Kylo.

“Sure,” Kylo allowed. “But then I’ll get a pity party I don’t want and you’ll teach 101 this spring.”

“You’re taking 101  _ and _ 108\. And we break up before Thanksgiving.” Hux sniffed. Kylo’s smile was fit to split his face, showing off his crooked teeth and dimples. It made him almost blindingly attractive. “And you’re shaving. I wouldn’t date someone so ill-kempt.”

“Deal,” said Kylo. “Thanks. I’ll pick you up Friday night.” He made to put his coat on again, and thunder cracked outside loud enough to shake the house.

“Oh, just stay,” said Hux, resigning himself to it as he spoke the words. “Take the couch. I don’t think any of my clothes would fit you, but there’s blankets and I won’t barge in.”

Kylo tipped him an exaggerated salut and started unlacing his boots. Hux wrenched his gaze away from Kylo’s stooped form and returned to his bedroom at a pace one notch down from fleeing. The timing was bizarre and eerie. Hux had spent his waking hours the past few months mourning a love life opposed to blooming, and now he was cursed with a charade of it. And Kylo had arrived in the middle of a thunderstorm soaked to the bone. It was almost as bad as the gothic horror novels Hux favored.

_ Don’t be paranoid. _ Hux chastised himself.  _ It can’t be any worse than it sounds. _

  
  


Friday found Hux stowed into Kylo’s car, his bag in back and a gas station coffee pressed into his hands, miles disappearing south under the wheels. Hux had previously emailed Kylo a list of everything he ought to know, and a separate list of questions. Kylo had only deigned to respond with his cell phone number, so Hux spent the ride quizzing him.

“How long have we been together?”

“Five years.”

“Five--  _ Ren _ ,” Hux gasped. “This is bad. You utter imbecile, this is madness. You told them--”

“Five, yes.  _ What? _ ” Kylo matched Hux’s disbelief with equally barbed defensiveness. “Don’t get your panties in a wad, Hux.”

“So you joined the Academy and immediately swept me off my feet?”

“No,” Kylo grinned. “You swept me off mine.”

“I’ve got a bad back. Christ...is there anything else?”

“Two and a half hours of your nagging and you think there’s anything we haven’t covered?”

Hux rolled his eyes and pressed, “You’re certain there’s  _ nothing _ else I should know? God, what’s your middle name? I should know that after  _ five years _ .”

“Oh,” Kylo’s eyes lit up in recognition, but he was grimacing. “There  _ is _ one other thing. They’re going to call me Ben Solo.”

“Ben.”

“Yes.”

“And that’s…?”

“Legal name. I wouldn’t have told you my middle name, not in a million years. And don’t ask!”

“Your first name is Ben?”

“Yeah, it is, Professeur  _ Armitage _ Hux.”

“Shut up.”

“Armitage  _ B _ . Hux?”

Hux hummed. He shouldn’t have included it in his email signature. “Brendol.”

“Fascinating.”

They arrived just before sunset. Kylo scarcely put the car in park before the doors were being flung open. For just a moment Hux thought that Sasquatch had opened his door, and then he realized it was merely a very large and very hairy man. The fellow greeted him in rustic, barely decipherable patois.

“Ouais, bonne nuit,” Hux managed, and then the giant with hair down to his waist and a beard to match pulled Hux up to standing and patted him on the back hard enough to make him stumble forward into the arms of another relative.

“Hi!” She said, all big hazel eyes and a shining smile. She’d pulled her brunette hair back, but wisps were coming free around her ears. “I’m Rey. You’re not Ben!”

“No,” said Hux, flustered. “No I’m not.” The girl had an English accent like him.

“It’s okay, baby,” Kylo called, getting out of his side of the car. “None of them bite too hard.”

“Oh my God!” Rey said, whipping her head toward Kylo. “Ben, you brought him? You didn’t say! Your mother will be thrilled. Leia!” She tore off across the darkening yard toward the rambling white lake house with its windows spilling out golden light.

“Rey’s my cousin. That’s Uncle Chewie. Charles Louis, but you didn’t hear it from me,” Kylo said, coming around beside Hux and walking him toward the house with an arm around his shoulder. The giant pushed past with their suitcases under each arm and ducked through the door in front of them.

Hux was quickly introduced to a dizzying array of people. Rey ushered not one but two boyfriends forward to shake his hand, both handsome. “Poe, Finn,” Hux repeated, willing himself not to forget any names. Next up was Luke, Rey’s father but not the source of her accent. Hux found himself with a handful of cold metal and then Luke’s arm came off up to the elbow.

Luke laughed heartily. “Oops!”

Everyone else yelled at him in sync, including Kylo, who carefully removed the prosthetic from Hux’s grip and shoved it back at the man. Han Solo was next, who introduced himself sternly as Ben’s father and said he’d like to have a word tomorrow.

_ Oh Christ, am I getting the talk at 34? _

The aforementioned Leia batted her husband aside, and Hux looked down into her fierce brown eyes. He sensed that out of the whole crowd, Leia was the one calling the shots. The one that Kylo somehow meant to impress by bringing a skinny ginger twink home. Hux swallowed roughly.

“I know it’s a lot,” Leia said warmly. “We’re delighted to have you.”

“We’re not done yet!” Poe complained, hoisting a fat orange-and-white corgi up. “This is Beebee.” He made the dog’s paw wave. Another one was jumping up and down at Hux’s feet, this one graying black-and-white.

“Artoo,” Kylo said fondly, sticking his hand down for the corgi to lick. “Threepio’s around here somewhere. You’ll like him.”

Hux was ushered into the living room and given a mug of hot cider, and then found there was nowhere to sit. Every available chair and the brick hearth was taken. Kylo patted his thigh, and Hux sat there before he could overthink it, hoping his face wasn’t pinched with worry. One of Kylo’s big hands steadied him, splayed on his waist through his shirt. Hux felt overdressed in a button-down and cardigan even though he’d swapped slacks and oxfords for faded jeans and converse.

The questions came a million miles a minute, especially from Rey. The crowd was disinterested in Hux’s job once they ascertained it was the same as ‘Ben’s’. They asked about his family: dead, and about his home: small, stark, and his pets: one spoiled cat. Luke apologized for the stunt with the arm, assuring Hux he pulled it on everyone at least once. Hux didn’t think he’d ever been surrounded by so many people talking over each other, or so many dogs trotting to and fro wagging their little stump tails, or so many pictures on the walls and cushions on the chairs and crocheted doilies on the tables. And decorations -- every available surface was clustered with garlands of orange leaves or sparkling purple tinsel, every corner had fake cobwebs, every shelf had a plastic skull.

By the time the group turned in for the night Hux needed to sneak out for a smoke. He lit up with shaking hands and the first acrid breath calmed him, until he felt Kylo’s hands wrap around his waist again. No one was watching; there was no need for the pretense. Hux didn’t shake Kylo off, and felt a bit rotten for it, like he was stealing something.

“You smoke?”

“You’ve seen me smoking outside the west entrance.”

“Mm. Must have been distracted. Mom won’t like it.”

For an instant Hux thought he would cry, and then he remembered he wasn’t here for the bloody approval of Kylo’s family. He was putting up with this disaster so that he could teach the class he wanted to this spring. “Won’t break her heart as bad when you tell her we’ve split, then,” Hux said, keeping his voice low.

“Do you like them?”

“Worried I’ll run off tonight?”

“A little bit, yeah.”

Another inhale and smoky exhale. “They’re charming.” Kylo’s grip tightened, making Hux’s pulse jump. They hadn’t explicitly taken physical affection off the table except for kissing, and he knew now he would have felt out of place standing apart from Kylo surrounded by what was obviously a very affectionate family, but this still put him on edge. If Kylo realized what his firm touch was doing to Hux, Hux would just die.

“Ready for bed?”

Hux stubbed out the cigarette on the worn railing. “Yes. Please.”

He was less eager when Kylo led him to what was plainly his old room, still decked out in the posters of his youth, complete with a bed that was entirely too small for the both of them. “Nearest bathroom’s downstairs, unfortunately,” Kylo indicated a door. “Closet.”

“But…” Hux protested. “Your father said he wanted to talk to me, I thought….”

“He’s just being Han. I’m almost thirty. Besides, the house is full.” Kylo was getting that bashful look again, entirely out of place on him. Hux didn’t like to see it nearly as much as he once thought he would. “I guess I can take the floor?”

“No,” Hux decided at once. He wouldn’t make Kylo sleep on hardwood because he was being...well, a prude. It was unnecessary. “No, we’ll make it work.” Hux steeled himself, calling on his years in boarding school to aid him, and stripped down. He pulled on his pajamas and got into bed, sliding back until he felt the wall behind him. The space left was hardly enough for another man as thin as Hux was.

Kylo stripped to his boxers and Hux tried not to gape at his chiseled abs and pecs, and then Kylo crawled in next to him without putting a scrap of clothing back on. He was very warm. They shifted, whispering apologies about misplaced elbows and knees, and then settled. Kylo was on his back and Hux half on top of him, face resting on his chest. It had been over a year since Hux had last been so close to someone else.

“Thank you, again. If I came alone they’d already be laying into me,” Kylo said, his voice a rumble beneath Hux’s ear. And  _ oh _ , if Hux couldn’t sympathize with that.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” Hux muttered, smirking when Kylo laughed.

Hux woke hours later with the urgent need to pee. He carefully extracted himself from Kylo’s grasp and crawled off the end of the bed. The door creaked when he opened it, but Kylo didn’t wake. Hux left it open to avoid repeating the noise when he came back, and walked down the hall by the light of the moon through the window.

He kept to the edge of the stairs near the wall, willing them not to squeak and wake the entire assembled company. Chewie was snoring loudly on one of the couches in the living room, and Han sleeping on the one across from him. Hux crept by, down another hallway. The first door he opened was a closet, but the second was, mercifully, the toilet. He locked himself in and pulled the string-light, clicking it on.

Just as he tucked himself back into his pants, he heard footsteps approaching in the hall. He turned and faced the door, and something stopped him as he reached for the handle. The hair on his arms rose as the ambient temperature seemed to drop several degrees. Hux waited, one hand still outstretched toward the doorknob. Instead of a knock or a twist of the handle, there came a quiet scratching at the door. Someone raked their nails down the wood in a slow path. Once, twice. Three times. The sound stopped.

Hux reached toward the knob and the door suddenly jolted in it’s frame, banging against the lock. “ _ Someone’s in here _ ,” Hux gasped out. The door stilled. Footsteps walked away down the hall and turned the corner. Hux waited until his heart stopped pounding, and then shut off the light and walked out.

He was nearly blind now in the dark, and walked slowly as his eyes adjusted, wincing when he stepped in a wet spot on the floor.  _...What…? _ Chewie and Han had slept through the racket, though Han now faced the back of the couch, only his silver hair visible. When Hux passed through the kitchen on the way to the stairs, he saw the source of the water in the hall.

Dainty wet footprints shone on the floor, reflecting the moonlight, headed in and then back out of the open sliding door to the back porch. Chill air seeped in, cooling the room. Hux approached the door warily and looked out into the yard and the woods beyond, and then the silver glimmer of the lake in the night, fog hanging over its surface. He couldn’t leave the door open, could he? But what if he locked someone out? Someone like...he looked down at the small wet footprints. Rey. Maybe Rey. But what was she doing up and scratching on doors?

“Sleepwalking,” Hux said. Of course -- just another thing Kylo had neglected to mention. It must be Rey sleepwalking, and if he locked her out she’d catch her death of cold. Hux steeled himself and walked out into the night, looking around. Everything seemed more sinister in the dark, from the shadow the garage cast on the lawn to the crunch of leaves under his feet. The ground was  _ cold _ , so cold it felt like it was burning his toes.

Hux walked toward the garage, supposing he’d start by circling the building. He wrapped his arms around himself then, conscious that he was no more dressed for the weather than any sleepwalker would be. Maybe not circle the house then, in case Han woke up and shut the door… Hux’s train of thought derailed as he looked up at the back face of the house and saw one window still lit up, garishly pink from string lights on the walls, and Rey and Poe and Finn all sitting together, passing a bong and talking.

Nothing was amiss with Rey, then. But who...Leia? They were the only two who Hux thought would leave tracks that size. In the distance behind him a splash sounded, and Hux whirled to stare at the lake, though of course he couldn’t see the shore from here through the trees and down the gentle slope of the land. He took two steps toward the sound before his own stifling fear stopped him. There was something ghastly about the look of the woods and the water beyond. And if it was someone from inside the house, they’d already been to the lake and back once, leaving wet tracks. Wouldn’t the cold water wake them up?

_ Right. Just go and peek in her room. No, that’s weird. Wake Kylo up and have him do it. No sense in chasing madness…. Unless it’s because your coworker’s five-foot-one mother just dove into a freezing lake. She could be drowning while I’m standing here. Fuck _ .

Hux started jogging toward the lake, picking his way through the trees carefully, avoiding snagging roots and stones. He still hissed in pain twice as he trod on a rock he hadn’t seen. Finally he approached the embankment, shivering now.

“Mrs. Solo?” he tried, and then thought about Han sleeping on the couch and winced. He’d ask Kylo, assuming Kylo wasn’t in mourning by the time the sun came up.

The splash sounded again, further out on the water. Hux walked to the edge of dry ground and looked into the mud next to the lapping edge of the lake. Bare footprints were there, hardly sinking into the muck at all. But  _ there _ , and terrifyingly real. Hux looked out onto the lake, squinting, and for just an instant thought he saw something that scared him half to death. He fell back on his ass with a cry, thankfully onto dry ground.

“Hey,” Rey’s voice behind him. “Hey, what the fuck?”

Hux looked back and scrambled back up to his feet, stammering. Rey looked vaguely amused, but worry still creased her eyes. “I thought I saw...something.” Hux finished lamely, gesturing at the lake behind him.

“I saw you in the yard.” Rey said. “It’s dark out. You could fall in.” But it wasn’t really dark out. The moon was full and bright. Her eyes flicked past Hux and took on another quality he couldn’t name. “You should stay in bed. Don’t leave your room at night, okay? Come on.”

“Okay. Yes.” Hux said, letting Rey take his arm and lead him back up toward the house.

  
  


Hux woke for the second time, the sane light of day streaming in through the windows, cognizant of two things immediately: one, that a cat had curled itself up just behind his head and was purring, and two, that he was rock hard against Kylo’s muscled thigh. He opened his eyes, planning to scooch away from Kylo to preserve what little dignity he could muster before Kylo woke, and found Kylo staring up at the ceiling with his face an alarming shade of red.

“Sorry,” Hux mumbled, rolling back quickly and disturbing the golden cat. It jumped over him and Kylo in two bounds and stared up from the floor, lamp-like eyes reproachful.

“That’s Threepio,” Kylo said. The cat sniffed and tiptoed out of the cracked door. “Mom came by and opened the door for him so he wouldn’t wake us meowing at it.”

Hux rubbed his eyes, willing his cock soft and wondering whether he was destined for a shower wank when it wouldn’t obey. Kylo coughed and slid out of bed, hands clapped awkwardly in front of his own crotch as he staggered to his closet. When he turned around he had a wad of clean clothes held in front of him like a shield. Hux was doing much the same with the duvet Kylo had cast off.

“That’s a different shirt,” Kylo said. “And pants.”

“Oh!” Hux looked down at himself. He’d traded the pajamas he’d hiked through leaves and dirt in for clean ones before clambering back into bed from the bottom edge, the way he’d left it. “So it is.”

Leia yelled something indiscernible up the stairs and Kylo yelled back, his voice transformed immediately into something raw and savage that made Hux flinch. “OKAY WE GET IT.  _ THANK YOU! _ ” He turned back to Hux. “We slept in and now we’re late for breakfast, which is putting Rey’s schedule in danger. She wants to carve pumpkins today.”

Kylo insisted that Hux shower first -- there was likely to be shortage of hot water for the last one up and at ‘em -- and so Hux arrived at the kitchen table alone, feeling especially strange after the night before. He dreaded walking in on everyone laughing at him, Rey merrily recounting his exploits, but she didn’t seem to have done so. Leia handed him a cup of strong black coffee, inquiring about cream and sugar, and breakfast went on smoothly from there.

By the time Kylo arrived, hair still damp and body encased in a red sweater that did nothing to hide how broad his shoulders and chest were, Rey was clearing the table, intent on setting up pumpkin carving supplies. Kylo tugged on her ponytail and grabbed a pancake from the teeming plate she’d moved to the counter, eating it with his hands. Rey batted him away, spreading an orange plastic tablecloth out. Kylo finished his first pancake and grabbed another, moving around the room, dodging relatives until he made it to Hux.

“You look nice,” he said with his mouth full.

Hux clasped his coffee mug tight, feeling just as overdressed as the night before. Rey and her boyfriends were in workout clothes -- university sweatshirts and all. Hux wore a collared shirt under a cardigan. At least he’d had the good sense not to pack slacks, looking at what Kylo wore to his classes.

By the time Hux’s hands were mired in pumpkin guts he and Kylo were also mired deep in bickering. “Give me that,” Hux twisted the little pumpkin knife with its slimed-up orange handle out of Kylo’s big fingers, bending over to delicately carve out part of their design. Kylo had insisted on Darth Vader, and the mouth plate was going to be a bitch.

“You need to—”

“Yes, tell me precisely what it is I  _ need _ to do,  _ Ben _ .”

“You’re gonna fuck it up.”

“I can’t possibly fuck it up any more than you already have. There! Look.”

Kylo made a grudging noise of approval, and Hux glanced up and then froze. Leia was staring at them, her face unreadable. She came back to life, her eyes flitting away to look at Finn’s design. Hux bit his lip, handing the tool back over to Kylo. He oughtn’t argue so much. This wasn’t a department meeting, he was here to convince Kylo’s family they were happily in love.

“Do you think….here?” Kylo asked.

Hux thought a millimeter to the left, and thought that was obvious, but he said, “Looks good, darling.”

The pet name didn’t sound overly forced to Hux’s ears, but Kylo looked up at him, gleefully amused. “You bein’ sweet? What’s gotten into you?”

Hux kicked him lightly.

When the jack-o-lanterns were finished everyone posed with them outside while Leia snapped pictures, and then arranged them on the back porch. Kylo handed theirs off to Hux and after Hux had situated it in a way he liked, he saw that Kylo was gone. Wandering through the house, Hux heard Kylo’s low voice rumbling behind a door and pressed his ear to it to listen.

“You didn’t tell him,” Rey hissed, an accusation.

“It’s fine,” Kylo bit back at her. “You said nothing has happened in years.”

“You should still warn him.”

“And have him think I’m  _ fucking _ insane?”

Hux heard Kylo approach the door and fled, keeping his face pleasantly neutral when Kylo found him in the kitchen and looped an arm around him. Rey shouldered by, her expression furious.

After lunch they went down to the lake shore. There was only so long skipping stones held any interest for Hux, but it seemed the assembled Skywalker-Organa-Solo clan could do it for hours. They hung out at the water’s edge, laughing and rough-housing each other, and tossing pebbles out onto the lake. Kylo was good at it. Hux, not so much, even after Kylo took his wrist and tried to help him. Hux’s nerves started to fray. Perhaps there was something in Leia’s dislike of smoking after all; it was rather pathetic how badly Hux was craving one.

“I could use a smoke. Badly,” Hux finally whispered to Kylo as noon passed them by, the sky gray overhead. Kylo made a hurried excuse about how nice it was for a walk, and they strolled together away from the group. Hux lit up and puffed on his cigarette, almost sighing on his first exhale. They walked along the lake path, and Hux stole glances out at the deep teal water too often. Kylo caught him and raised his eyebrows, and Hux shrugged.

“They’re buying it,” Kylo said conversationally.

“Even after I told you it was evident your one purpose in life was ruining jack-o-lanterns?”

Kylo laughed. “Mom and Dad are worse. Trust me. They’re on their best behavior for you. Another perk of having you here. They’d have already thrown things at each other at least once if it was just me and Rey. Her guys have been around so long they don’t count anymore. And the three of them get along so well it’s spooky! Chewie’s convinced they just hide their arguments.”

“I’d have liked to throw something at  _ you _ when you suggested separating 304 into two courses. The department meeting last fall.”

“I remember. You went all red. It was cute.”

Hux scowled.

“Like that! Like that, but redder. You’re perfect for this, you know. Give me a look like that in front of Mom and she’ll think I’ve eloped without telling them.” They walked for a while in nearly companionable silence. Kylo broke it. “My grandmother died out here. Or this is where they found her, anyway. It probably happened closer to the western side. That’s where she and Grandfather lived.”

Hux stopped short and Kylo took another two long steps before he swiveled around, noticing Hux’s absence. Hux inhaled and exhaled bracing smoke again.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” he said.

“I didn’t know her. Mom and Luke were young when it happened. It’s awful, yeah. Cue the violins.” Kylo’s eyes turned out on the lake, and he looked embarrassed now. “And the ghost stories. Skywalker family curse.”

Hux started walking again, Kylo falling into step with him and seeming glad for it. “Rey put you up to this,” Hux said. Not asking.

“Whatever happened--”

“Nothing happened.”

“Just...you know, if something did, I wouldn’t think you were crazy.”

“Well nothing did.” Inhale, exhale. Hux’s eyes drifted to the lake almost on instinct and he wrenched them away.

“All right.”

The water splashed against the rocks. The orange trees rippled in the great mirror of the water, and clouds rolled overhead. Simple homes were scattered through the hills, dirt tracks eventually linking up with a highway ten miles beyond the western edge of the lake. Water, a scar in the earth holding water, and homes surrounding the scar, and woods filled with birds and deer. There was nothing else out here. It was quiet. They walked, Hux smoked. He reached the end and lifted one heel to stub the cigarette out on the sole of his shoe.

“Will you call a report in if I litter?”

“Give it to me.”

Hux handed the butt over and then chuckled when Kylo tossed it in the lake. “I’ll bet that’s bad for just about everything.”

“You report  _ me _ , then.” Kylo kept strolling along. Hux followed.

“A drowning in a lakeside community doesn’t make much of a ghost story,” Hux said. “Begging your pardon, of course.”

“Oh, well… there  _ is _ more to it.”

They had walked far enough now that Kylo’s family came back into sight as they rounded the lake. Hux looped his arm through Kylo’s. “Do tell.”

“There wasn’t any evidence of foul play. The cops investigated and everything, and didn’t find any sign of a struggle in the house or anything on the...on her body, but it didn’t look good. She wore a necklace that Grandfather had carved for her instead of a wedding ring, and she didn’t have it on when she was found. Grandfather died the same night. He, uh, doused himself in gasoline and lit a match. Right in their backyard, facing the water. Mom and Luke were with a family friend. The one I’m named after. Whole town pretty much decided she tried to leave him and he took the ol’ murder-suicide route to cope.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. So there it is.” Kylo pressed his lips together into a line. “You want me to drive you home?”

“Ren, I’m a grown man. It’s fine. Life’s ugly sometimes.”

Kylo used the grip of his arm around Hux’s to tug Hux closer, a little smile on his face.

  
  


On the night of the 30th, everyone gathered in the living room. The same lack of seating presented itself, and Hux settled into Kylo’s lap again, with less anxiety than the first time. It felt good. They fit together easily, Hux curled in against Kylo’s broad chest. He could pretend it was real, even just for the length of whatever slasher graced the television screen.

“Is everyone ready for the Creature Feature?” Han asked, fiddling with the DVD player and then the remote. The disc menu popped up.

“Oh, shit,” Kylo murmured against Hux’s ear. “I’m so sorry, Dad did this on purpose. He thinks he’s funny. We don’t have to stay.”

“What?”

“The movie. We watched this one years ago. The killer, ah...well.” Han pressed play. The presumed damsel in distress appeared on the screen, trotting through a misty forest at dusk, decked-out in seventies fashion with her dyed-red hair teased up. Hux could hazard a guess.

“He kills redheads?”

“He kills redheads,” Kylo groaned.

Hux laughed softly. Kylo put an arm around him, wonderfully heavy and solid. “Good thing I have you here if I get frightened,” Hux told him, cringing inwardly the moment he said it.  _ Shit _ . Not only was it disgustingly sappy, he didn’t have an excuse -- he hadn’t said it loud enough to play it off as part of the charade. Kylo’s arm tightened around him, his hand gripping Hux’s side, warm through his shirt, and he nuzzled the side of Hux’s face.

Luke broke out two bottles of  Jägermeister and Chewie whooped. Leia shook her head indulgently. Han jumped up to help Luke pour shots. “Drink every time someone does something stupid?” Luke suggested.

“We’ll  _ die _ ,” Finn said gravely.

Rey helped hand out the first round of shots. Within the first twenty minutes, a lured victim tripped and fell, and it was time. “Everybody drink,” Luke said, knocking his back. Hux drank, grimacing at the sweet and ruddy citrus-licorice taste. Luke and Han hurriedly set about refilling everyone’s shot glasses.

With the room dark and flickering with the colors on the television screen, the air felt electric between Kylo’s body and Hux’s. The movie progressed and Hux didn’t retain a single scene, just letting color and sound wash over him as Kylo’s hand burned through his clothes like a brand. Two shots later he had practically melted into Kylo’s grip and he let his face rest in the cradle of Kylo’s neck. His skin felt hot against Hux’s. Two more shots and the room was spinning. Someone fell into a pool of acid on the screen, screaming as they thrashed in the blue and burned. Hux kissed Kylo’s neck before he thought better of it, brushing his mouth over his throat softly, and felt Kylo swallow. Another shot. It went down like honey. Kylo’s grip on him tightened to the edge of pain. He was looking at Hux in the gloom, mouth soft in wonder and dark eyes burning. The sight of him made Hux’s insides go molten.

Hux found himself being hauled up. The movie was over, credits rolling. Kylo was talking, saying goodnight. Hux couldn’t find his own tongue to speak. They didn’t break contact all the way up the stairs, Kylo’s hand gripping Hux’s elbow and tugging him. Hux shifted to try and grab Kylo’s arm, but couldn’t reach. Kylo’s grip was a steel vice. They stumbled into Kylo’s room and he kicked the door shut and locked it. The lamp in the corner was on, the bed in half-shadow.

“Your eyelashes are gold,” Kylo murmured.

“Yours aren’t,” said Hux.

The room upended and Hux found himself on his back, and his jeans were being pulled off, leaving him in his boxers and black socks. He pulled off his jumper, but didn’t get himself out of his sweat-soaked undershirt before Kylo was on him. He’d stripped himself down to his underwear so fast that he’d seemed a blur to Hux’s bleary eyes. Kylo stretched onto him almost lazily, eclipsing him and holding him down with his weight. Hux wouldn’t have moved even if he could. He let himself float there on Kylo’s childhood bed, the room spinning subtly. He wished that his brain weren’t buzzing so intensely and that he didn’t feel vaguely sick to his stomach from so many  Jägermeister shots, so that he could focus completely on Kylo’s body against his. Kylo kissed his neck once in just the place Hux had kissed him, his mouth sinfully soft, and swiped his tongue over the spot he kissed, making Hux keen.

Kylo pulled off with a ragged gasp, and then his mouth was on Hux’s mouth. Kylo kissed him eagerly, with more spit and more tongue than strictly necessary. It made heat coil in Hux’s belly. Hux hoped his own tongue wasn’t sour. If so, Kylo gave no indication he cared. He sucked on Hux’s lower lip hard enough that Hux grunted, and then he ground his hips down on Hux’s and Hux saw stars. He realized he was achingly hard, and that Kylo was too. There was no mistaking the warm, throbbing length pressed into him from his balls to nearly his hip bone. The feeling of that, of his insanely gorgeous coworker hard and throbbing for him after one movie’s runtime worth of chaste touching and one kiss, made Hux feel close to coming already.

“Fuck,” Hux murmured between kisses, and then Kylo was thrusting against him in earnest, the friction almost painful. Hux tilted his head away to look down between their bodies at Kylo’s sculpted chest and abs. He gazed dumbly down at the muscle of Kylo’s thigh straddling his own while Kylo mouthed at his cheek and then his ear, panting. Electric pleasure built in Hux’s groin, threatening to shoot up his spine and then all the way out to his fingers and toes.

“ _ Hux _ ,” Kylo moaned. Loud and unselfconscious in drunkenness. “Oh God, baby.”

Something tapped on the wall next to the bed, coming from Rey’s room. Hux imagined her grimacing and jabbing the wall with a broom. Kylo slammed his fist into the wall twice, the second strike hard enough to dent the plaster. Some of it came away, chalky on his knuckles, and scattered onto the sheets. Hux looked at those little white pieces of plaster and returned Kylo’s efforts, rutting up against him urgently, chasing release. Kylo was moaning, the sound a mite too loud in Hux’s ear until he moved to kiss at Hux’s neck, at the softness under his chin. Their breath seemed to cycle together. The room seemed wrong. Too bright and too dark at once. The bed felt fake, but the little sand-like grains of plaster rolling down and sticking to Hux’s arm were very real.

Kylo shouted, pushing himself so hard against Hux that Hux wondered if he would bruise, and then he felt Kylo’s prick throbbing through their underwear and his own orgasm rushed out of him, staining his boxers and making his pubes feel unpleasantly wet. Kylo collapsed, still half on Hux. There was no escaping to clean himself up. He thought he might fall over even if he did manage to get off the bed. And of course there were the stairs to contend with...no, definitely not. He’d fall to his death. The mess was a problem for Morning Hux. Hux wrapped his arms around Kylo and nuzzled his forehead, breathing in his scent. He fell asleep that way.

He was floating in the lake. That was bad, somehow, but Hux couldn’t remember why. It wasn’t cold, so hypothermia wasn’t the issue. He let the water cradle him, face barely above the surface, the wind rustling the trees on the shore. The shore was awfully far away, the depths fathomless below him. Hux was suddenly aware that he was not alone. He turned to his left, already knowing what he would see, and locked eyes with the woman who floated beside him. More than her brow and her dark eyes were visible now, unlike the last time she had peered at him while he stood on the shore. Her long tangled curls formed a halo around her, littered with pale flecks of leaves. Her dress was dark blue and melded with the lake, fabric swirling. Her face and hands were as pale as the moon. She stared at him with eyes he knew, eyes like Kylo’s, and spoke.

  
  


Hux’s eyes flew open, and he forgot instantly what the woman had told him. He was in the warm cradle of Kylo’s bed, not the lake, and late morning sun streamed through the window. He was suddenly aware he was going to vomit. He sat up. Kylo’s side of the bed was empty, the covers rumpled. The sunlight hurt his eyes. His mouth was rancid.

Hux groaned, standing on jelly-like legs and gathering up clothes he wasn’t sure matched. He stumbled down to the shower like a zombie and, after he double-checked the lock on the door, put the toilet-lid up and got down on his knees, his movements businesslike. Just as he thought, the moment the bowl was in front of him his stomach gave up the ghost and heaved. He retched loudly.

“Uh oh,” Luke’s muffled voice came down the hall, full of pity. “Sorry, kiddo.” There were more voices at the end of the hall. Hux couldn’t focus on them right now.

He vomited until his eyes were watering, and then spat. He brushed his teeth next, unable to go another moment with a mouth quite so rotten. When he pulled down his boxers he hissed at the filth he’d slept in. The filth he’d slept in after….

Hux’s heart dropped. If he hadn’t just emptied his stomach all the way to bile he might have puked again. He showered thoroughly but quickly, the cold water waking him up fully. He brushed his hair back and pulled on the clothes he’d selected -- jeans, mismatched socks, a pair of Kylo’s boxer-briefs instead of his own, a slightly rumpled button-down, old converse -- and wandered out into the glaring light of the house, squinting.

“Hit you hard, didn’t it?” Luke said amiably.

The scent of breakfast was off-putting. Hux wasn’t sure he could even face a cup of coffee. “Yeah,” he managed weakly. “Where’s R- Ben?”

Rey snorted. “You’re both grumpy.”

“I’d have thought he’d be in a better mood this morning,” Poe said pointedly, making Hux’s pulse jump again, cold anxiety wracking him.

“He’s in the woodshed. A place where, conceptually, excess noise wouldn’t bother any neighbors,” Finn added, and Rey gave an exaggerated shudder.

“Kids these days are such prudes,” Han said from the stove.

“Right. Thank you.” Hux took his leave before the conversation could get any worse, escaping out the back door before he realized he didn’t know where the woodshed was. The light of day hit him like an ice pick to the skull. He scanned the yard and sighted a building away from the house, at the edge of the tree line. If that wasn’t it, it was a place to start.

Before he approached the door he could hear Kylo’s characteristic voice, gone ragged in a series of rage-filled screams that made Hux’s body hair stand on end. There was a repeated crashing noise from within the shed, fit to shake the walls. Hux could see the lake glinting white through the trees. He turned and looked into the gloom within the open door of the shed.

Kylo swung a wooden chair (or what remained of it) up and onto a worktable, finally splintering the seat of the chair. It had already lost all its legs. The worktable cracked too. The entire shed looked like a tornado had gone through it. Kylo was sweaty and mussed, his hair wild. He didn’t look to have showered this morning. He’d just...what? Grunted at his family and then come straight out here to destroy an outbuilding?

Kylo realized he was being watched and returned Hux’s gaze, dropping the wreckage of the chair. He was breathing hard, eyes wild. Hux knew he looked no better. He was still squinting, his brain addled and sore, and he doubted his complexion had lost its green tinge yet.

“Hi,” Hux said.

“Hi,” Kylo said back, breathless.

Hux indicated the broken chair on the floor with one hand, unable to find the words to ask after Kylo’s wellbeing. It seemed pointless to ask anyway. They had explicitly agreed not to go as far as kissing each other, and then Kylo had gotten well and truly blitzed and they’d done a sight more than kiss. Hux’s stomach clenched again, but there was nothing in it to come up, and he suppressed the urge to gag. Hux never should have taken Kylo up on this offer. He’d been caught up in the fake relationship, desperately wanting it to be real, and now look: Hux had taken advantage of loosened inhibitions like some sort of hideous creep, and Kylo was so upset he was breaking furniture.

“Rey wanted to hike today,” Ren said.

Hux groaned. “I can barely stand.”

“I know. I don’t know how she does it. Maybe she has two livers.” The timbre of Kylo’s voice changed then, his plush lips trembling. “Hux, I….”

“I’ll leave,” Hux offered at once.

“Do you want to? I can drive you back, or...or Han.”

Hux felt like his heart was breaking in two. Kylo didn’t even want to weather the drive back to Seattle with him. The idea of sitting in a car with Kylo’s father for that long was horrifying. “I don’t mind staying, I just--”  _ don’t want you to be uncomfortable _ .

“You can stay.” Kylo fixed him with a wane smile. “Stay. Please.”

“Okay,” said Hux, feeling monstrous.

  
  


Rey did coax the younger members of the house out for a hike. Unhappily, as far as Hux was concerned. They moved along the beach at first, not so different from the day before, but then Rey pointed them up into the forest when they turned onto the south shore. They left the open sky and the few small boats bobbing on the water behind. The stiff breeze followed them. It started to sprinkle cold rain, but the forest swallowed most of it and the precipitation didn’t trouble them. They stopped when they reached a rushing stream bubbling over jagged stones. Shaggy brush formed an impenetrable screen between them and the lake.

They rested for a bit, Poe and Finn sitting together on a boulder. Hux swayed on his feet and then found himself propped up by Kylo. He was as good for it as any tree would be.

“Ben didn’t let you think you’d just come up here and hibernate, did he?” Rey asked Hux. She was stretching near the stream, twisting from side to side and touching her toes.

“Ben didn’t tell me anything,” Hux said, closing his eyes and letting his head fall back on Kylo’s shoulder.

“Didn’t Old Ben live around here? Obi?” Rey asked.

“Mm. Not really. Further south,” Kylo mused.

“He never got over Grandfather. It was sad.”

Kylo hummed an agreement.

“You’ll tell the story tonight, won’t you?”

Kylo shifted, and Hux opened his eyes. “About Obi?” Kylo asked, sounding troubled.

“No. The other one.”

“Oh. Maybe.”

  
  


As the sun set, the younger members of the household split off again from the ‘adults’. Hux felt that out of the two categories he belonged more to the other one, but he walked along down to the beach with Kylo and Rey and Finn and Poe and they set about building a campfire. Hux watched -- between Kylo and Rey there were already too many captains.

They settled around on logs, the tops worn smooth from generations of campers, and Rey passed out beers. She’d gotten them from Han, and cracked them open without asking who wanted one. Hux accepted his and took one swig, and then just held it, the can making his hand cold.

“You want to tell it, Ben?” Rey asked, plainly excited.

“Nope. You pestered me for nothing.”

“Come on, man. You tell it best. We’ve missed out the last few times,” Finn teased him.

“Don’t know why you want to hear it every year. Don’t you get tired of it?”

“It’s the perfect campfire story!” Rey protested. Her cheeks were flushed. She was on her second beer already, having chugged and crushed the first one under her boot in record time.

Hux hadn’t been able to decide whether he wanted to finish his drink. On one hand, he’d already mortified himself sufficiently on this trip, and irreparably harmed his relationship with his coworker. On the other, the idea of crawling back into bed with Kylo tonight completely sober made his blood run cold.

“Isn’t it bad luck to talk about this stuff so close to the water?” Poe asked, looking out at the fogged surface of the lake. He, evidently, had not missed Kylo’s oratory skills.

“Oh, come on,” Rey scoffed.

“It’s cursed.”

“Hell yeah it is,” said Finn, but he was smiling.

“It’s more than superstition!” Rey said. “Ben,  _ please! _ ”

Kylo took a deep breath, and then looking into the crackling flames, began to speak. “In the winter, huge thunderstorms boil in the valley. They spit purple lightning bolts that set fire to high timber. Some years the lake floods from here nearly to the Cascades. The wind howls fit to wake the dead, and rips roofs from homes.”

Rey clapped and snuggled in to Finn’s side, grinning. Hux found himself staring at the way the fire reflected in Kylo’s dark eyes.

“The wind lays his hammer on the water, beating her until she bares whitecap teeth. She’s old, too. A well of glacial water, deep and full of secrets. She was here before the first houses were built, and even back then no one liked her. The people of the valley refused to paddle across, afraid that demons would drag them to the bottom.”

A gust of wind moaned across the water then, blasting them with the unmistakable lake-smell of vegetation and sour water. Their campfire guttered, but survived, the flames growing tall again once the wind slowed.

“You’re getting good at this,” Finn said drily, smirking at Kylo. Poe looked behind him, out into the dark, and said nothing.

“Keep going,” said Rey. It was muffled -- she had pulled her sweatshirt over her nose so that only her wide eyes showed.

“There are many stories about the lake. Eerie myths, true crime, unsolved mysteries. Of course the closest to home is our very own lady of the lake, Padmé Amidala.” Kylo kissed his fingertips and raised them out to the water. “She was found only hours after death. She hadn’t been weighed down. No reason to rule out accidental drowning.”

“Except for the obvious,” Poe grumped, undoubtedly meaning the strange end of Kylo’s grandfather. Hux felt Kylo stiffen almost imperceptibly next to him, and saw the corners of his eyes tighten.

“There have been bodies found that were unmistakably  _ put _ into the lake.” Kylo continued. “Chained to cement blocks before their killers hauled them out of boats, and sunken deep. Until they weren’t. They found one when I was eight, washed up directly below the bridge on the northern end. She was identified as a waitress at a local joint.”

“Obi’s Tavern,” Rey supplied.

“The frigid alkaline water at the bottom of the lake preserves what we give it. It had turned her into soap.”

It was Hux’s turn to interrupt. “Soap?”

Kylo nodded. “Like a sort of mummy. It preserves them. Softens them up so you could scrape away bloodless white lines with your nail, but they look almost like they did alive.”

“And there’s more of them down there,” Rey said almost breathlessly. She had dropped her sweatshirt back down. “More soap corpses at the bottom.”

“It’s likely. The lake is a convenient dump site, and a lot of people have disappeared from the area over the years. The folks in these hills are prone to hysterics.”

“I’ll say,” Poe murmured.

“I’ve never heard anything about this,” Hux said incredulously. “Who disappeared?”

“There was a married couple that went missing in 1955. No hint, just up and vanished from their home with the door standing wide open. The only thing missing from the house was the wife’s crutches and the clothes they’d been wearing. She turned her ankle in front of the grocery the week before. In 2005 a diver found a vintage crutch in 200 feet of water. Then of course there’s Maul Point.”

Poe whistled. “They oughta lower the speed limit there. Put more signs up.”

“Cars go through the guardrail semi-frequently,” said Kylo. “Most notably, an ambulance in 1998. Sirens blaring, on the way to the hospital with an injured logger in the back. It went into the lake and none of the people inside got out. It’s still down there in the murk. Seems like every year some diver discovers a car door down there, or a bumper, or rims. A whole bicycle. Bodies? Bones? I think there’s plenty of those in the deep too. A whole reef of them, past the point where the light penetrates the water. You’d need a flashlight to see ‘em, but the lake keeps them close. She doesn’t want to share. Some say that the souls the lake takes don’t move on. They stay forever in the cold primordial bath.”

“Ben wrote an essay on superstition and geographical features in grad school,” Finn told Hux.

“You did?” Hux asked. Kylo rubbed the back of his neck, looking vaguely embarrassed. “You must email it to me. I’d like to read it.”

“Okay. I can do that.”

“It’s getting cold,” said Poe. “Want to go in?”

“The fire’s still burning down, we can’t leave it yet.” Rey argued. “Besides, I want to do a seance! It’s Halloween. We can’t  _ not _ do something spooky tonight.”

Poe shook his head. “No way.”

“It’s made up,” Finn laughed.

“You’re going to?” Poe challenged him.

“Er, I...maybe not.”

“You’re a couple of chickens,” Rey sniffed. “What about it, Hux?”

“I’m afraid I’d only mess it up for you,” Hux said. “I’m a cynic to the bone.”

“Ben?” Rey tried, losing steam.

“Sorry, kid.” Kylo chuckled. “I don’t need any worse luck than I’ve already got.”

“Rats.”

The wind tore across the water and roared through the trees where they sat, tossing limbs and making them creak, and blowing an impressive amount of yellow leaves free of their perches. Hux’s hair was well and truly loose from his efforts to slick it back now. He wondered idly how crazy he looked, whether there were leaves or pine needles in it. Things wound down. Finn told another scary story that didn’t hold the same vein of terror in the center that Kylo’s had, a classic ‘the call is coming from inside the house’ sort. Hux looked at the dark water and reflected that the fear Kylo had called up in their hearts was more potent simply because he had needed to embellish little on the truth to make it frightening.

Kylo didn’t take Hux’s hand or sneak an arm around him to keep up appearances, and that made Hux’s heart ache.  _ I’ve fucked everything up _ . Not that it was real to begin with. The fire burned low enough eventually that Poe and Kylo carefully scooped up the coals and deposited them in the lake, kicking dirt up over the ash left behind, and everyone walked back to the house.

Hux dressed himself for bed and crawled in with his front to the wall while Kylo was in the bathroom downstairs. When the door creaked open and then closed and Kylo’s warm weight settled into bed behind him, Hux didn’t move. For a few minutes it seemed Kylo would sink into sleep without speaking.

“Hux?”

There was to be no respite. Hux didn’t answer, pretending to be asleep.

“I know you’re awake.”

“Ren, I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I just--”

“I know. It’s not what we agreed on.”

“Yeah.”

Hux felt hot tears pricking his eyes and willed them not to fall. He swallowed more loudly than he wanted to, and turned it into a question. “Rey asked about Old Ben. The one you were named after. What’s that story?” He was sure he didn’t want to hear it, only anything would be better than lapsing into silence this way.

“I don’t like that one very well. I wouldn’t want to hear it at night if I was sleeping alone.”

“You’re not.”

“That’s true. Luke kept Obi fed in his old age. Took boxes of canned goods to his ramshackle cabin over the ridge until he passed away. It was obvious Obi missed Grandfather a lot. They’d been as close as brothers. And he avoided the lake after...after. He loved Padmé too. They were his family. He got kind of looney as he aged. He’d tell Luke some pretty strange stuff. About seeing things in the water at night, or hearing them scratch at the cabin door.”

Ice flooded Hux’s veins, and he wanted Kylo to stop, but his voice was frozen.

“On Luke’s last visit, Obi said that he saw the body of a man lying on the shore that morning under a pile of driftwood, and he ran to it, but when he reached it the corpse sprang up from the weeds and slithered into the water, quick as a crocodile. It can’t have happened, but Obi believed it. Luke said he was terrified. That you could practically smell it coming off him, this...sour fear. Obi died that night, sitting in his armchair.”

Hux found his vocal cords. “Your Grandmother….”

“Buried. Far from here. She’s not out in the lake, no matter what Rey and Luke think they’ve seen.”

“So it’s not real, according to you?”

Kylo hummed. “It’s not...simple. I don’t think Rey and Luke are lying, but I don’t know what’s worse. If there really are people trapped out there or if it’s something  _ else _ , you know? Dad almost died in a weird way, too. A steel rod fell off a shelf while he was working on his truck and nearly impaled him a couple years ago. It was  _ lucky _ I didn’t come home that year. I was planning on moving that pile of scrap metal over to store some of my crap next to it. It would have skewered him.”

“One more local curse and I won’t be able to suspend my disbelief any longer.”

“One more curse, coming right up. I’ll probably lose a hand at some point.”

“...What?”

“Grandfather lost his, then Luke. I’m next up.” Kylo laughed then, and Hux found himself laughing too.

“The men in your family lose their hands. The people who marry into it lose their lives or have close calls.”

“Rey’s got two boyfriends so she has a spare just in case.”

“As long as a curse knows the difference between real and fake courtships, I have no objections,” Hux said, and Kylo elbowed him playfully. They settled down, making themselves comfortable. Kylo’s big feet touched Hux’s legs, and he let them.

Eventually sleep took him. Hux dreamed of sinking beneath the surface of dark water, struggling helplessly as a pale woman with a cloud of floating black hair floated near, reaching out for him through the murk. He woke with the sun, Kylo’s back pressed to his. Warm. He basked in that slight touch and felt vile for it, not moving until Kylo did.

  
  


Poe was the one who spotted the rowboat. It lay grounded on the shore just below the house, partially obscured by a large branch that had washed up with it. The oars were stowed and a pail’s worth of water sloshed around the bottom, going green, but nothing else seemed amiss with it.

“There’s rentals,” said Rey. “Somebody forgot to tie theirs up.”

“I don’t think so. This looks old,” Finn said. Hux was inclined to agree -- the boat was weathered, bleached a colorless green-gray by the sun, and it smelled of woodrot and lake algae.

Poe tied the boat’s rope to one of their sitting logs before they left, and throughout the day the others took turns going down to look at it. “That thing’s older than  _ me _ ,” Luke had professed jovially.

Leia sternly forbade her niece from messing with it, one step ahead of Rey’s imagination. “Either it belongs to the lodge or a local. I’ll start with the lodge.” She dialed them on the landline phone, twirling the curled-up cord around her finger.

The weather was nice, a bit warmer. They played croquet on the lawn, Han and Chewie and Luke spectating. Hux’s heart wasn’t in the game. He was content to let Kylo represent the both of them. It appeared that Kylo’s croquet feud with Poe ran deep.

Han surprised everyone with a plan to take them out for dinner on his dime, which Hux heard Leia click her tongue at. They packed into cars and rode out to a fish and chips place on the western end of the water called the Rebel Cantina, and ate and drank beneath hanging lights on the deck there. The food was good, as was the beer, and the weight of Kylo’s arm when he laid it across Hux’s shoulders again. Hux had feared it wouldn’t happen, though once it had and his heart was pounding he felt even worse. He didn’t know what to make of it.

When they returned Leia made hot chocolate, insisting that ‘the kids’ drink theirs on the back porch, ushering them out. “She just wants to interrogate Dad,” Kylo confided in Hux. “Find out where he got any money to throw around.”

“The boat’s still there,” said Rey. “How much you want to bet?”

“I’m not betting anything against you,” Finn said amiably. “You’re like...psychic or something.”

“Let's take it out.”

“Your aunt said not to.”

“Live a little,” scoffed Poe.

“Oh, you want Leia mad at you?” Finn challenged him. Poe blanched. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

“Well, I’m going,” said Rey, and set out on her own, determined. As one, the remaining group looked at each other and then jumped up, following in her wake.

“Mom’s gonna have my hide for this,” Kylo muttered.

“So we stop her,” Hux said.

Kylo laughed. “Stop Rey? That’s a good one.”

No one stopped anybody, or even tried to. Once they were there with the boat a sort of energy took hold, something as old as humanity itself. Kylo and Poe shoved the boat out, sacrificing their dry shoes for the good of the whole. The shore steadily shrank behind, taking with it the glowing lights of the house.

Rey was delighted. “Isn’t this great?” She was perched on the bow. The night breeze made the wisps of her hair coming loose flutter.

The slap of the oars dipping into the obsidian glass surface of the water and the creak of the wood in the oar-rings was mesmerizing. They fell into a trance under those sounds, the boat surging out into the center of the lake. The hovering mist split as they plowed through it, bobbing in tatters on the gentle waves. Hux thought, with a sudden spike of panic, that the boat was insect-like prey for a monster in the deep. He didn’t want to be on the water anymore, but of course there was no escape. He felt that he couldn’t breathe, but he forced himself to.  _ See? Nothing but nerves _ . He wouldn’t beg Kylo to go back to shore, in front of Kylo’s cousin and friends. It was nothing. He was being stupid.

Poe stopped rowing, making an exaggerated face and holding up red, irritated palms. “Ouch!”

“Oh no, we’ll never make it back without you. We’re doomed to sail forever,” Finn laughed.

“Hey, don’t give up on me so easy.” Poe returned to task. He started trying to turn the boat, commencing a good-natured argument with Finn and Kylo. Their oars kicked up cold spray. Finn hit Kylo in the face with a splash of it and Kylo’s expression momentarily darkened into the pure rage Hux had seen in the woodshed. Finn stopped clowning. “Let’s go back before I actually can’t row this darn thing,” Poe said.

Working together, they rowed back toward the house. Hux realized his feet were wet. Too wet for the splashing to account for it. He looked down. Dark water was rapidly filling the boat, bubbling up from the hull. “ _ Shit! _ ”

“It’s the plug!” said Rey, jumping up and then sitting back down when the boat tipped with her movement. “The plug in the back!  _ Ben! _ ”

Hux was nearer, and got there first, plunging his hand down into the murk and feeling for the bilge water drain. His arm was submerged to the elbow. He felt around for a hole and an attached plug, and found it -- firmly in place.

“Guys…” Poe said, voice tinged with alarm.

Kylo’s hand scrabbled next to Hux’s in the cold water and Hux moved so Kylo could feel what he’d felt. “Plug’s in,” Kylo bellowed. “I think the whole thing’s coming apart.”

Poe and Finn dropped their oars. Rowing was impossible now, anyway. “Come on,” said Finn. “We’ve gotta swim for it!”

The shore seemed horrifyingly far. It had been years since Hux swam so much as a lap. His stomach cramped in fear. He tasted acid. Rey leaped free of the sinking vessel and Poe and Finn followed her. Kylo was grabbing Hux’s arm, pulling him to the side of the boat. He said something that Hux’s brain could not decipher, consumed entirely by swelling darkness. Kylo released him. Water gushed over the rails and the boat was a stone headed for the bottom. The moon hung low, too low and too large. It merged with the lake and water and sky reversed, turning over. Kylo jumped. Hux tried to and stumbled.

The frigid water hit him like a sucker punch, knocking his breath out. He tried to replace it and water scorched his sinuses and throat. He thrashed, trying to fight to the surface, and felt himself sinking far too quickly. His left leg -- his pant leg was caught on something. One of the metal oar-rings. He floundered, trying to orient himself in the dark and lightless cold, kicking futilely to try and rip his clothes and go free. The sinking suddenly stopped and agony flared in his leg. Hux reached out blindly and his hands sunk into freezing murk. The bottom of the lake. He was at the bottom.

Hux tried to kick his leg free again and could hardly move it, pain flaring in his thigh. Red points danced in his vision. His lungs cried out for air. He twisted in a desperate bid to tear himself free with his hands, fingers gripping his sodden jeans in the darkness, feeling along for whatever trapped him. Something flickered in his peripheral vision and he turned toward it. A form approached swiftly from the blackness, shining and tumbling toward him, gaining substance as it neared. Hux stared at it in wonder, thinking that he’d fallen into the sky and was sinking now toward the moon, but it was no moon. It was a face, ghostly green in the deep.

The woman that Hux thought he had seen in the lake on the first night, peeking above the water with dark eyes and then sinking back down, floated next to him now. She pressed something into his hand and then tugged something near Hux’s foot and he was free. Dainty hands hooked under his armpits and hoisted him up, disappearing once he could see light above him again.

Hux tried to gasp when he surfaced and only managed a choking sound, water dribbling from his nose. Bigger hands were on him then, a cacophony of noise in the air. A low voice next to him, hoarse with panic. Intermittent shouts. Shrieking, further away. Hux let this second pair of hands take him away.

Curled in a fetal position on the shore, Hux vomited up water and then breathed on his own, in burning, harsh sobs. He looked up into the face of Luke. Luke’s metal arm was on his shoulder. “Easy, kid.” He said. “You might feel weak and shivery for a while. We’ve got to get you inside. Tell us when you want to try and stand.”

Kylo’s face replaced Luke’s, pale with feverish blotches of color high on his cheeks, and hair plastered to him in wet strings like a drowned rat. His ears were big. Hux told him so, and the expression of relief on Kylo’s face was so palpable it made Hux feel better too. Hux tried to summon an image of the woman he’d seen in the deep and could not. He was beginning to doubt he’d seen it at all when he opened his fist and heard a chorus of gasps. Luke lifted the wooden pendant on its cord from Hux’s palm and handed it off to Leia.

When Hux was installed inside in front of the roaring fireplace with dry pajamas on and a blanket wrapped around his head, he heard Leia’s voice like a knife-edge stabbing into Kylo and Rey in the kitchen. Poe and Finn were seated next to him.

“You okay, man?” Finn asked.

“You scared us all.” Poe added. “Luke had to do CPR on you.”

It took Hux’s brain a minute to parse through the words. “My leg was stuck.” He winced after saying it -- that much was obvious. His ankle was bruised and a submerged branch had poked him in the thigh. His jeans were torn in that spot and he’d bled all over the kitchen floor when he’d stumbled in, Kylo’s arm around him keeping him upright. Kylo had cleaned and bandaged the wound for him.

“Do you think you need to go to the hospital?” Finn asked, looking concerned.

That snapped Hux awake. “ _ No _ . No, I’m fine. Thank you.”

Rey’s sobs echoed into the room. She was inconsolable in the face of her aunt’s lecture. Hux felt sorry for her. It sounded like Kylo was getting the worst of it, just as he’d prophesied.

“He nearly  _ drowned _ , Ben,” Leia snapped. “You all could have, taking a washed-up boat out at night with no lifejackets! I can’t  _ believe _ I raised someone so stupid. Do you know how lucky you are? He could have  _ died! _ ” There was an indistinguishable crash and Han intervened, shouting at ‘Ben’ to go and cool off.

  
  


Kylo came in late that night, breathing hard and smelling of sweat. Maybe he’d gone for a run or maybe he’d destroyed something else. He woke Hux climbing into bed, but Hux didn’t know what to say, and Kylo didn’t break the room’s near-silence. In the morning, Hux woke again when Kylo got up, his tread heavier than usual and his shoulders slumped. The sky was lavender, the sun not yet up. Hux waited a minute and then got up too, casting around for his missing clothes before he remembered that Han had taken everything of his to wash it last night. Leia had told him she’d mend his jeans, as if that was one of his worries. He tugged on Kylo’s cast-offs, joggers and a flannel shirt that were far too big on him. He had to cinch the drawstring on the pants tight.

He found Kylo by the woodshed and watched him literally spit in the direction of the lake and raise his fist at it. Letting the features of the world know his disdain. Hux stood beside him.

“That’s the coldest water I’ve ever been in.” Hux said mildly.

Kylo looked at him and his face seemed almost wounded when he took in Hux’s appearance, bedraggled and dressed in Kylo’s clothes. Hux’s stomach lurched. “Mine were in the wash.”

“Yeah. Yeah.” Kylo blinked. He might have been blushing, or it might be the pink light of the sun rising.

“It sounds stupid even in my own head,” Hux said, smiling ruefully. He took a shaky breath and plunged on. “When you showed up at my door in the middle of a thunderstorm I just felt like...like you might be in trouble. Whatever it was you asked of me I’d have done it, in case it helped you. Because you’d be in trouble if I didn’t. Looks like I had it backward, huh?”

“You came out here to save me?” Kylo asked, smiling now too. The water glinting through the trees shifted from purple to pink to milk glass.

“Not just for that.”

Kylo’s eyes widened. “101 and 108,” he said, voice shaky.

“Ren….”

“I know, I’m just…” Kylo shrugged, scuffing a boot in the dirt. “Being an ass, I guess.”

“Hold on, can I get a recording of that?”

“Not a chance. God, I’m sorry, Hux. If you don’t forgive me, well, that’s what I deserve. But if we can still be friends….”

“Your mother was too harsh on you. None of us knew it would happen.”

“Not the boat. The boat, too, I mean. All of it. All of…” Kylo raised his arms wide, gesturing at the lake, or at all the world, or all of life. “This. The party….”

“I’m sorry,” Hux blurted too.

Kylo looked at him like he’d grown a second head. “You?”

“Yes me,” Hux snapped. “Christ, I was dry humping you like a desperate fool after we’d said no bloody  _ kissing _ . I feel like a predator.”

“No,” Kylo said sharply, brows creasing. “I was doing that to you.”

“I promise I was not too drunk to move. I was, very much so, moving. Against you.” Hux felt his face growing hot, probably turning an unflattering shade of pink.

“It was my fault.”

“Is that what your tantrum was about? I thought you were cross with me.”

“I thought I assaulted you!” Kylo cried, voice entirely too loud.

“I finished in my shorts,” Hux hissed at him. “I  _ liked _ it. Did you…?”

“Yes.”

“Well. If we both liked it--”

“I meant I came, but that too.”

Hux pinched the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb. Kylo laughed and grabbed him, pulling Hux into a fierce hug. “You’re insufferable,” Hux said, the sound muffled against Kylo’s chest. Kylo kissed his shoulder on top of the flannel shirt and then pulled back, cupping Hux’s face in his hands.

“Still want to break up before Thanksgiving?”

“I think I can hold out through winter break, actually.”

Kylo leaned in and then paused, looking at him hopefully. Hux closed the distance, kissing Kylo softly. Kylo’s lips seemed to fit with his perfectly. Once they started kissing neither wanted to stop, going back for more. Hux felt as though his joints were rubber, and there was a strange but pleasant fluttering in the pit of his stomach. His hands trembled when he used them to mirror Kylo’s hold on him, cupping his jaw. His breath shook when they parted.

“Thank you. For hauling me ashore, I mean.” Hux said, and then bit his lower lip, agonizing...deciding to forge on. “Did you see anything...odd...in the water?”

“Besides you?”

“Watch your mouth.”

“I saw you hand my grandmother’s pendant to Luke like it was a talisman. I think Mom hid it somewhere. Did  _ you _ see something?”

“I don’t remember,” said Hux, and it wasn’t a lie. “Ren, will any of the rest of your family’s festivities involve another campfire?”

Kylo looked taken-aback. “Yeah. Luke and Han usually build a big bonfire in the backyard before everyone leaves.”

“I was just thinking that, given recent events, we both ought to skip something like that.”

Kylo considered it a second, and then nodded emphatically.

  
  


Rain fell heavily on Hux’s home and lightning flashed outside, making the shadows of the trees stretch bony fingers across the wall. The impromptu break was ending just as it had started -- in the clutch of a storm. Well, not  _ exactly _ as it had started. Hux stroked his fingers through Kylo’s hair as he turned the page of his book one-handed. Kylo took up the length of the couch next to him, his head resting in Hux’s lap and one big hand squeezing Hux’s thigh. Millicent purred on the ottoman next to Hux’s feet.

“Once more.”

Kylo gave an exaggerated sigh and reached up to push Hux’s reading glasses back up his nose for him. Hux pulled his ear gently, teasing. A flashlight and spare batteries rested on the coffee table in case the power went out. For now, everything was still on, including the movie Kylo was watching.

“You screamed, sometimes for a reason. Time went by for no reason,” Hux murmured. It wasn’t from his book, it was the line spoken at that instant onscreen.

Kylo looked up at him, coy. “Our love fell asleep, and the snow took it by surprise. But if you fall asleep in the snow, you don’t feel death coming,” he recited. Then, “Is this your way of telling me you’re getting cold feet?”

“Mm. Yes. Your taste in films is atrocious.”

“That’s the third line you’ve known by heart.” The power died, conveniently plunging them into darkness. Kylo shifted, grunting, and clicked on a flashlight. “I’ll light the candles.” While Kylo was up, bringing warm light back to the house, a branch knocked against the window and made Hux jump. Kylo chuckled at him. “Jumpy?”

“Haven’t I got reason to be?” Hux mused. He very nearly hadn’t returned to finish out the semester. He saw the pained look on Kylo’s face and softened his own. “Sorry, love.”

Kylo brightened again, returning to the couch. “I like that.”

“You’ll never hear it again if I have to live through one more of your impressions.”

“Hux.” Kylo’s voice alone told Hux he was circling back to the misfortunes of the trip.

“It’s really alright.”

“We don’t have to go back. Ever.”

Hux leaned down to kiss him. “In a book, finding that necklace would break the curse.” Another kiss. “But if you want, we’ll make our own traditions.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hux tells none of his classes any details of his personal life and Kylo brags to his students that he's dating Hux. They're like "THAT pretentious asshole? ....okay." By the time winter break rolls around Hux and Kylo are getting married. They make the fam come to Seattle for the ceremony just in case the lake ghosts want to get frisky, and Hux says his vows using Kylo's chosen name.
> 
> I am de-lighted with how stupid Hux is here. His coworker has been lying to his entire family about dating him for five years and he's like "oh NO, I'm taking advantage of this situation to get closer to my hot coworker, I am such a creep ):"  
> They are French professors bc my degree might as well get some light use. Don't think about how weird 'Hux' would sound in French. The movie they are watching midway through is 'The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave' which is a 1971 Italian erotic thriller about a BDSM-obsessed English Lord mourning his unfaithful ginger wife (who died before he could take revenge on her for her infidelity) by murdering ginger sex workers after bringing them to his secluded castle. You can rent it on Amazon for 99 cents but I don't recommend spending a cent on it. Also I do NOT recommend watching it with your parents and uncle and cousin if you do rent it. Perhaps I will write a kylucc with a similar plot someday. The movie Hux and Kylo are watching at the end is 'Paris, je t'aime' which is one of my favorites, available on Netflix, and I DO recommend it. You will cry and believe in love.


End file.
